Aggregation of rating indicators

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method and system for publishing an aggregate rating indicator based on a plurality of discrete rating indicators associated with a rated entity. The method includes searching a plurality of repositories containing the plurality of discrete rating indicators associated with the rated entity. The method may include retrieving a first rating indicator, a second rating indicator, and a third rating indicator. At least one of the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicator may be a fraudulent rating indicator. The method may include filtering out the fraudulent rating indicator from among the first, second, and third rating indicators, wherein the fraudulent rating indicator is determined based on a combination of parameters. The method may include aggregating the first, second, and third rating indicators after filtering out the fraudulent rating indicator such that the aggregation results in an aggregate rating indicator.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/015,503, filed on Jun. 22, 2014 and entitled “Methods and Systems forRating Aggregation,” the complete disclosure of which, in its entirety,is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The embodiments herein generally relate to data compilation, and moreparticularly to methods and systems for aggregating ratings data.

2. Description of the Related Art

Different review platforms often provide different ratings and reviewswhich may be substantially different based on who is providing thereview and based on reliability and authenticity associated withreviewers and reviews. Such platforms leverage the wisdom of a crowd forassessing different entities such as physicians etc. Rating aggregationalgorithms exist which typically collate different ratings from such aswebsites and generate a summation or an average rating for an entitywhich is indicative of credibility of the entity such as a physician.

Existing methods and systems however do not generally provide an optimalaggregate score since the ratings may be influenced due to variances inreviewers' approach of rating an entity and because all reviews orreviewers may not be reliable in the same way.

In view of the above, there is a need to provide an improved way andsystem for generating an aggregate rating indicator about an entity toestablish an optimal rating and to facilitate searching of entities inan optimal way based on rating indicators to meet user requirements in aprecise manner.

SUMMARY

An embodiment herein provides a computer-implemented method forpublishing an aggregate rating indicator based on a plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators associated with a rated entity. The methodincludes searching a plurality of repositories containing the pluralityof discrete rating indicators associated with the rated entity, whereineach of the plurality of rating indicators comprises a numerical scorecomponent and a sentiment score component. The method may includeretrieving a first rating indicator published on a web-based repository.The first rating indicator may include a first numerical score componentand a first semantic score component. The method may include retrievinga second rating indicator published on a personalized social networkingplatform section. The second rating indicator may include a secondnumeric score component and a second semantic score component. Themethod may include retrieving a third rating indicator stored with alocal storage component associated with the rated entity or a ratingentity. The third rating indicator may include a third numeric scorecomponent and a third semantic score component. At least one of thefirst rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator may be a fraudulent rating indicator. The method mayinclude storing the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator,and the third rating indicator in a memory circuit equipped with aspecial purpose processor. The method may include filtering out thefraudulent rating indicator from among the first rating indicator, thesecond rating indicator, and the third rating indicator, by the specialpurpose processor, wherein the fraudulent rating indicator is determinedby the special purpose processor based on a combination of parametersincluding a geo-location coordinate similarity between a rating entityand the rated entity, gender identification, age specifics, frequency ofthe rating indicator of the rated entity by the rating entity, sentimentwriting style, duration between the rating indicator and a subsequentrating indicator by the same rating entity for the same rated entity,duplicate rating indicators provided by the rating entity for the ratedentity, use of multiple different rating sources for rating the ratedentity by the rating entity, and the like. The method may includeaggregating the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, andthe third rating indicator by the special purpose computer afterfiltering out the fraudulent rating indicator such that the aggregationresults in an aggregate rating indicator indicative of an equivalent ofthe plurality of discrete rating indicators other than the fraudulentrating indicator. The method may include generating an electric signalcomprising data signifying the aggregate rating indicator and the ratedentity. The method may include transmitting the electric signal from adata communication device, communicatively connected with the specialpurpose processor, in a network comprising a plurality ofcommunicatively linked data communication devices. The method mayinclude converting the electric signal into a plurality of pixels. Themethod may include displaying the plurality of pixels on a display unitof a second communication device to publish the aggregate ratingindicator associated with the rated entity and the data signifying therated entity.

An embodiment herein provides a system for publishing an aggregaterating indicator based on a plurality of discrete rating indicatorsassociated with a rated entity. The system may include a search enginefor searching a plurality of repositories containing the plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators associated with the entity, wherein each ofthe plurality of rating indicators comprises a numerical score componentand a sentiment score component. The system may include a specialpurpose processor for retrieving a first rating indicator published on aweb-based repository. The first rating indicator includes a firstnumerical score component and a first sentiment score component. Thespecial purpose processor is configured to retrieve a second ratingindicator published on a personalized social networking platformsection. The second rating indicator includes a second numeric scorecomponent and a second sentiment score component. The special purposeprocessor is configured to retrieve a third rating indicator publishedwith a local storage component associated with the rated entity or aratting entity. The third rating indicator includes a third numericscore component and a third sentiment score component, wherein at leastone of the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and thethird rating indicator is a fraudulent rating indicator. The systemincludes a memory circuit communicatively and operatively connected withthe special purpose processor for storing the first rating indicator,the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicator. The systemincludes a rating filter or a filtering engine communicatively coupledwith the special purpose processor and the memory circuit for filteringout a fraudulent rating indicator. The fraudulent rating indicator isdetermined based on a combination of parameters including a geo-locationcoordinate similarity between a rating entity and the rated entity,gender identification, age specifics, frequency of the rating indicatorof the rated entity by the rating entity, sentiment writing style,duration between the rating indicator and a subsequent rating indicatorby the same rating entity for the same rated entity, duplicate ratingindicators provided by the rating entity for the rated entity, use ofmultiple rating sources for rating the rated entity by the ratingentity. The system may include a rating aggregator communicatively andoperatively connected with the special purpose processor for aggregatingthe first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator after filtering out the fraudulent rating indicatorsuch that the aggregation results in an aggregate rating indicatorindicative of an equivalent of the plurality of discrete ratingindicators other than the fraudulent rating indicator. The systemincludes an electric signal generator embedded in an electronic circuitand communicatively and operatively connected with the special purposeprocessor and the memory circuit for generating an electric signalcomprising data signifying the aggregate rating indicator and the ratedentity. The system includes a transceiver for transmitting the electricsignal from a data communication device, communicatively connected withthe special purpose processor and the electric signal generator, in anetwork comprising a plurality of communicatively linked datacommunication devices. The system includes a signal converter forconverting the electric signal into a plurality of pixels to publish theaggregate rating indicator associated with the rated entity and the datasignifying the rated entity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like numerals describe similar components substantiallythroughout the several views. The drawings illustrate generally, by wayof an example, but not by a way of limitation, various embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture for establishing ratings inaccordance with an embodiment herein;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary environment depicting a process ofaggregation of ratings acquired from a plurality of publishers inaccordance with an embodiment herein;

FIG. 3 illustrates a system block diagram of the rating aggregator inaccordance with an embodiment herein;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a rating aggregator in accordance withanother embodiment herein;

FIGS. 5-7 illustrate examples of user interfaces for facilitatinginteractions with a rating aggregator in accordance with an embodimentherein;

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate examples of financial information and profileinformation retrieved by a rating aggregator for use in comparativedetermination of associated aggregated ratings of physicians inaccordance with an embodiment herein;

FIG. 9 illustrates a sentiment analysis engine, a filtering engine, anda rating evaluation unit communicatively connected with a plurality ofrating sources, in accordance with an embodiment herein;

FIG. 10 illustrates a method diagram for aggregation of ratingindicators and publishing of an aggregate rating indicator, inaccordance with an embodiment herein;

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary architecture involving a plurality ofcomputing devices connected over the network, in accordance with anembodiment herein;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of filtering of the rating indicatorsthat are obtained from various types of sources through use of amulti-layer filtering approach, in accordance with an embodiment herein;and

FIG. 13 illustrates a computer system that may be used in accordancewith the embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and these are shown byway of illustrating specific embodiments herein that may be practiced.These embodiments, which are also referred to herein as “examples,” aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the embodiments herein, and it is to be understood that theembodiments may be combined, or that other embodiments may be utilizedand that structural, logical, and electrical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the embodiments herein.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one. In this document, the term“or” is used to refer to a “nonexclusive or” unless otherwise indicated.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture 100 for establishing ratingindicators in accordance with an embodiment herein. As depicted, thearchitecture 100 may include a plurality of client devices 102 a, 102 b,and 102 c together referred to as 102 that are networked through anetwork 104 with a server 106. The server 106 acts as a central systemfor allowing access of the plurality of client devices 102 to a ratingaggregator 108. The rating aggregator 108 is communicatively connectedwith the server 106.

The plurality of client devices 102 may include devices such as a usercomputer or any other computing device that includes input devices (suchas a keyboard, mouse, microphone) and output devices (such as a monitor,printer, or speaker). The user computer may also include networkconnections to other devices, computers, networks, servers, etc., thatare connected to the network 104. In some embodiments, the network 104is a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), an intranet orextranet, or a combination thereof. Communications with the network 104are implemented using wired and/or wireless technologies. Otherconfigurations may be possible.

The client devices 102 are associated with users such as individuals orinstitutions and the like. In some examples, the users may want to knowreview scores or ratings about other persons or groups or institutionssuch as but not to limited to doctors, physicians, hospitals, otherhealthcare providers, other service providers or other types ofprofessionals, or group of professionals or institutes etc.

The client devices 102 communicate with the rating aggregator 108through the network 104. In some embodiments, the rating aggregator 108may include a search engine that crawls the Internet and downloads andanalyzes rating sites along with the rating indicators found on theInternet. The rating aggregator 108 allows the users associated with theclient devices 102 to submit a query in the form of search terms such askeywords or a phrase in Boolean expression or natural language to thesearch indexes in an attempt to locate desired information related toaggregated rating indicators about an entity such as but not limited todoctors, physicians, hospitals, other healthcare providers, otherservice providers or other types of professionals, or group ofprofessionals or institutes etc. The rating aggregator 108 is furtherdiscussed below.

The rating aggregator 108 may be communicatively coupled with aplurality of rating repositories 110 such as 110 a and 110 b that mayinclude such as local storage components 112 a and 112 b and web-basedrepositories 114 a and 114 b. The rating aggregator 108 may extractrating indicators from the plurality of rating repositories 110 andperform aggregation as discussed later in conjunction with variousfigures.

FIG. 2, with reference to FIG. 1, illustrates an exemplary environment200 depicting a process of aggregation of the rating indicators acquiredfrom a plurality of publishers 202 a, 202 b, 202 c, and 202 d togetherreferred to as 202. The publishers 202 may each be associated with arespective rating repository similar to the rating repositories 110 aand 110 b. In accordance with various embodiments, the publishers 202may include items such as a website, a social networking page, asoftware platform interconnected through the network 104, or any otherforum that publishes a rating indicator associated with a rated entitysuch as but not limited to doctors, physicians, hospitals, otherhealthcare providers, other service providers or other types ofprofessionals, or group of professionals or institutes etc. For example,the publishers 202 can be a web site that provides information aboutproducts, services, or other areas of interest. In some embodiments, thepublishers 202 may provide one or more web sites on a given topic.

The publishers 202 are communicatively connected with the ratingaggregator 108 through a communication mechanism such as a networksimilar to the network 104 discussed in conjunction with FIG. 1. Therating aggregator 108 may facilitate aggregation of the individualrating indicators taken from the publishers 202 and apply rules todetermine a cumulative or aggregated rating indicator. The aggregatedrating indicator may be determined by the rating aggregator 108 by usingone or more of various algorithms or methods including withoutlimitations such as simple averaging, weighted averaging, summation,mean, and the like and various other ways as discussed elsewhere in thedocument. In accordance with various embodiments herein, the aggregatedrating indicator as determined by the rating aggregator 108 may befiltered for superfluous, erroneous, or fraudulent ratings or effects asfurther discussed below. The final or aggregated rating indicatorobtained by the rating aggregator 108 may be published by the ratingaggregator 108 on a separate website or with a website associated withany of the publishers 202. The aggregated final rating indicator or theaggregated rating indicator may be differentiated from the individualrating indicators and a comparison may be provided along with publishingof the aggregated rating indicator on the website.

FIG. 3, with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, illustrates a system blockdiagram of the rating aggregator 108 in accordance with an embodimentherein. The rating aggregator 108 includes a communication circuit 302,a search engine 304, a filtering engine 306, a rating evaluation unit308, a publishing engine 310, and a memory circuit 312. In anembodiment, the rating aggregator 108 may be connected communicativelywith the server 106 as shown in FIG. 1.

The search engine 304 may be configured to run a search query foridentification of websites that post rating indicators for specificproducts or services. The search engine 304 crawls the Internet anddownloads and analyzes sites found on the Internet that contain any typeof reviews or ratings associated with a particular category. In anexample, the search engine 304 may be operatively connected with asearch server (not shown) that may include one or more programs forproviding searching capabilities and search results processingcapabilities. In an example, the search server can include one or moreprograms that are downloaded and installed to allow the search engine304 to discover and act on information. In an example, the search engine304 may download the program using a known protocol such as HTTP or thefile transfer protocol (FTP). Once downloaded, the programs are run bythe search engine 304 in connection with the search server.

The program allows the search engine 304 to perform discrete searchesusing multiple sources of information that contain reviews and ratingindicators. These discrete search capabilities can be coupled with othertraditional sources, such as Google™ and Yahoo!™ search engines, forexample, to enhance the search experience by the search engine 304 andto make sure that the rating indicators and review searches arecomprehensively performed throughout the Internet-based informationsources. In an example, the search engine 304 may be hosted locally withother components of the rating aggregator 108. In other embodiments, thesearch engine 304 may be hosted remotely such as by a remote server(e.g., server 106 or some other server (not shown)). In suchembodiments, the remote server may be linked with individual servers ofpersons or institutes so as individuals to search for rating indicatorsand review and submit such rating indicators through a social platformor a user interface to the rating aggregator 108. In this manner,distributed individual search experiences and search outputs may bemerged along with search capabilities of the search engine 304 providingenhanced and comprehensive review and rating aggregation experience tousers and viewers of the aggregated rating indicators.

In an example, the search engine 304 may further include or becommunicatively coupled to a browsing engine (not shown). The browsingengine may be communicatively connected with individual users or viewersor members who are subscribed with a platform provided by the ratingaggregator 108 or a service provider who maintains the rating aggregator108 through a website, social networking site, rating aggregatorplatform or through any cloud or non-cloud-based distributedarchitecture. The browsing engine may be programmed to search theindividual's own data storage devices to index the individual's owncontent so as to explore their views and reviews and rating indicatorsand merge them with the individual rating indicators during aggregation.These explored reviews and rating indicators are identified for anyerroneous and superfluous or fraudulent content or reviews prior toaggregation. The filtering of the rating indicators is discussed below.

In an embodiment herein, the various individual rating indicatorsidentified by the search engine 304 are defined in association with theproduct category they belong to or even a particular object or productor person or institute. For example, the rating indicators may belong toa particular category such as football game review by US citizens. Inanother aspect, the individual rating indicators may belong to and maybe associated with a particular object or product or person or institutefor example reviews or rating indicators about a particular physician.In an embodiment, the rating indicators may be numeric in nature. In anembodiment, the rating indicators may be subjective in nature defined inthe form of textual, audio, or visual reviews or in the form of acombination of these wherein a sentiment analysis may be needed as willbe discussed below.

The filtering engine 306 is configured to filter out the superfluous,erroneous, or fraudulent rating indicators (hereinafter referred to aserroneous rating indicators together interchangeably for the purpose ofsimplicity of description) from a set of identified individual ordiscrete rating indicators as identified by the search engine 304. In anembodiment, the filtering engine 306 may be configured to filter theindividual rating indicators based on frequency of rating of an entityby a person. For example, if a person provides a rating to an entity toofrequently, the rating indicator may be considered as erroneous and nottrustworthy. In such a case, the trust and reliability associated withthe rating indicator may be considered as low. On the contrary, if thefrequency of rating of an entity by a person is moderate or low, it maybe considered as trustworthy and reliable. Such a rating indicator maynot be considered as erroneous.

In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the filtering engine 306 may beconfigured to filter the individual rating indicators based on quantityof rating of a rated entity by a rating entity. For example, if the sameperson (or rating entity) rates the same rated entity multiple timesfrom different websites or from different publishers, the ratingindicator may be considered as erroneous. In such as case, the filteringengine 306 may either remove the redundant rating indicator or mayaltogether consider the rating indicator as erroneous. For example, inone case, if the same rating entity rates the same rated entity twentytimes from twenty different websites, the filtering engine 306 mayconsider these twenty rating indicators equal to only one ratingindicator and the remaining nineteen rating indicators may be consideredas erroneous and filtered out during aggregation. In another case, therating indicator by such a rating entity may altogether be considered asnot trustworthy and unreliable and such rating indicators by any suchperson are completely moved out of the aggregation process by thefiltering engine 306 and are not considered at all. In some embodiments,trust and reliability indices may be associated with individual ratingindicators such that aggregated rating indicators with at least adefined threshold level of indices only are considered for aggregation.

In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the filtering engine 306 may beconfigured to filter the individual rating indicator based on spatialcoordinates such as geographical locations. For example, if a personbased in Texas, USA rates a physician located in the UK, the associatedrating indicator may be considered as erroneous. In an aspect of theembodiments herein, the filtering engine 306 may be configured to filterthe individual rating indicators based on gender identification. Forexample, if a male person rates a gynecologist, it may be considered asfraudulent or erroneous and may be filtered out during the ratingaggregation process. In an aspect of the embodiments herein, thefiltering engine 306 may be configured to filter the individual ratingindicators based on age specific information associated with the ratingentity who rates the rated entity.

The rating evaluation unit 308 may be configured to process theindividual rating indicators obtained after filtering out of thesuperfluous and erroneous rating indicators. In an aspect, theprocessing may involve performing a simple averaging or weightedaveraging of the individual rating indicators. In an aspect, theprocessing may involve summation of the individual rating indicators. Instill another aspect, the processing may involve calculating mean of theindividual rating indicators. In an aspect, the processing may involvevarious other algorithms or statistical and analytical tools such ascalculating standard deviation etc. for the individual ratingindicators. The processing of the individual rating indicators by therating evaluation unit 308 results in an evaluated or aggregated ratingindicator that is a representation of the individual rating indicatorstaken together without any erroneous effect caused due to erroneous andsuperfluous rating indicators.

The rating evaluation unit 308 further associates a comparative rank tovarious aggregated rating indicators in a defined category of ratedentities. For example, after determining the aggregated ratingindicators for a group of physicians in California, USA, the ratingevaluation unit 308 may further associate a comparative rank with eachof the aggregated rating indicators corresponding to rated entities thatare indicative of which physician or rated entity is rated higher orlower relatively in the defined category.

The publishing engine 310 may be configured to receive the aggregatedrating indicator and/or the relative rank of the rated entity within thecategory of ratings and publish the rating indicator on a website or anyother portal such as associated with any of the publishers 202 or anyother publisher. In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the aggregatedrating indicator may be published on a social networking website. In anaspect of the embodiments herein, the aggregated rating indicator may bepublished by any other review website. In another aspect of theembodiments herein, the rating aggregator 108 may be communicativelylinked with one or more of the publishers 202 to depict the aggregatedrating indicator along with the individual ratings as published by thepublishers 202 on the same page so as viewers to compare a localindividual rating indicator on a website and a corresponding aggregatedrating indicator. In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the server106, operatively connected to the rating aggregator 106, may separatelyhost a website on its own to publish the aggregated rating indicatorindependently.

In accordance with various embodiments herein, various ways of depictingor publishing the aggregated rating indicator may be employed by thepublishing engine 310. For example, in an aspect of the embodimentsherein, a visual or a graphical interface displaying the aggregatedrating indicator may be provided. For example, a custom chart such as abar chart and the like may be used to display the aggregated ratingindicator.

In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the publishing engine 310 maydisplay a user interface sectioned into two separate portions.Individual rating indicators may be displayed on one side of theinterface in one portion while a respective aggregated rating indicatoris displayed in another portion of the section or interface. Forexample, on a right side of the interface, there may be thirty ratingindicators taken from individual websites while a right side of theinterface may include only one rating indicator that is an aggregatedrating indicator corresponding to the thirty individual ratingindicators.

In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the aggregated ratings may bedefined in the form of positive or negative ratings. In an aspect of theembodiments herein, the aggregated ratings and the individual ratingsmay simultaneously be displayed on a user interface such as in the formof numerator and denominator combinations, and the like. In accordancewith other embodiments, several other types of depictions, displays, andvisuals may be used to publish the aggregated ratings. The publishedaggregated ratings may be linked to a customizable user interface (notshown) that can be customized by a user or viewer of a page or websitecontaining the published aggregated ratings.

The memory circuit 312 may be communicatively connected with the searchengine 304 to store the individual rating indicators gathered by thesearch engine 304. The memory circuit 312 may be further connectedcommunicatively with the filtering engine 306 to store details about theerroneous rating indicators that are filtered out. The memory circuit312 may be further connected with the rating evaluation unit 308 tostore details about the aggregated rating indicator. In an embodimentherein, the memory circuit 312 may store the aggregated rating indicatorin association with details about a category to which it belongs to suchas for example, physicians, movies, actors, and the like.

In accordance with an embodiment herein, the rating aggregator 108 mayinclude the communication circuit 302. The communication circuit 302may, for example, notify a person or any other rated entity who is ratedby others such as rating entities prior to aggregation of respectiveindividual rating indicators so as to confirm if the individual ratingindicators are appropriate. The communication circuit 302 may also senddetails about such person who rates the rated entity. The confirmationfrom the person can be received by the communication circuit 302 whichmay be indicative of a negative response or a positive response suchthat a negative response represents that the rated entity does notrecognize the rating person who rates him and there is a lesser chancethat the rating is appropriate. In an aspect of the embodiments herein,such a rating may be considered erroneous which may be filtered out bythe filtering engine 306. The communication circuit 302 may furtherserve as a communication channel between various other components of therating aggregator 108 and other external sources such as an entity whois rated (rated entity), persons or groups who rate an entity (ratingentity), and other interested parties who are interested in knowingreviews and comments offered to such entities, etc. In an embodimentherein, the communication circuit 302 may be coupled to the userinterface that is finally viewed by viewers or users and may provide aninteractive platform for information exchange among the users or viewersand the rating aggregator 108 through the user interface.

In an example, the embodiments herein provide a mechanism wherein ratedentities for whom aggregated rating indicators are generated may becompared with one another automatically based on their respectiveaggregated rating indicators. For example, in a group of physicians, itmay be identified as to who is the best physician and so on by comparingthe respective aggregated rating indicators.

The embodiments herein provide a mechanism wherein similar ratedentities may be identified based on their aggregated rating indicatorswithin defined constraints. The defined constraints may, for example,comprise age, geographical location, gender, specialty, and the like.For example, in an aspect of the embodiments herein, similar doctors maybe identified in a geographical area based on aggregated scores ofdoctors in the geographical area. In such a case, if a doctor is busyand cannot take a patient, one can search for another doctor bysimilarity in specialty or other constraint based on their aggregatedrating indicators. In an aspect, the embodiments herein may allowassociating similarity indices for a group of rated entities who areconsidered for rating aggregation.

FIG. 4, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 3, illustrates an example ofthe rating aggregator 108, in accordance with an embodiment herein. Asshown, the rating aggregator 108 includes all of the components as shownin FIG. 3. The rating aggregator 108 further includes a sentimentanalysis engine 402 in addition to the components already discussed inconjunction with FIG. 3.

The sentiment analysis engine 402 is configured to perform a set ofanalytical operations for analysis of opinions, textual information,sentiments and emotions, and other expressions. The analysis may involveidentification of orientation of views, reviews and ratings from textualinformation containing emotions, or sentiments as indicators of reviewsand ratings. In an aspect of the embodiments herein, the sentimentanalysis engine 402 converts such subjective expressions and reviewsinto ratings for use by the filtering engine 306 and rating evaluationunit 308 to determine an aggregate rating indicator. In accordance withthe embodiments herein, the sentiment analysis engine 402 facilitates inproviding a capability for associating rating indicators with textualinformation and subjective expressions and further analysis of theserating indicators. In an aspect of the embodiments herein, prior tosentiment analysis by the sentiment analysis engine 402, the views maybe either converted into numerical scores or ratings or in the form ofnegative, positive, or neutral ratings by the sentiment analysis engine402. For example, a patient may post subjective reviews about aphysician on a website. These subjective reviews are analyzed by thesentiment analysis engine 402 to associate a rating indicator with thephysician based on the patient judgment. Based on the analysis, therating indicator is associated by the sentiment analysis engine 402 suchthat it is indicative of a score of the physician earned from thepatient judgment and review. The rating indicator is then used by thefiltering engine 306 to perform the filtering tasks as discussed aboveafter which the erroneous rating indicator is moved out of considerationby the rating evaluation unit 308 while calculating an aggregated ratingfor the physician.

FIGS. 5 through FIG. 7, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 4, areexamples of user interfaces 500, 600, 700, respectively, of the ratingaggregator 108, in accordance with some embodiments herein. The userinterfaces 500, 600, 700 provide a mechanism for users to interact withthe rating aggregator 108 for rating or review interactions.

Several embodiments are further described below.

In an embodiment herein, a genuineness score may be attached to theaggregated rating indicator or individual rating indicator and also tothe rated entity who provides an individual rating indicator. Thegenuineness score may be calculated by analyzing one or more attributesof the review and the aggregated rating indicator and the rated entity.Some of the parameters or attributes that may be considered forcalculating the genuineness score may include, without limitations, thenumber of reviews, locations, gender, verification of a patient,individual review source site, writing style, and duration of timewithin which reviews and individual ratings are performed, etc.

In an embodiment herein, a review site that provides reviews or ratingsfrom authenticated users may rank higher than a review site that allowsanonymous reviews and ratings. In an embodiment herein, a set of userinterfaces may be provided for mobile applications that may allowinteractions of a user with the rating aggregator 108 through a mobiledevice (not shown). In an example, the set of user interfaces may beexecuted through widgets on the mobile device. In an embodiment herein,the rating aggregator 108 allows taking of a physician's name, andlooking up the information on all defined physician ratings and reviewsites, presenting a combined output that puts together the individual;ratings, comments, reviews, etc. from the various sites and collate themin a single page that may include the aggregated rating indicator.

In an embodiment herein, the rating aggregator 108 may raise flags thatare indicative of frauds by specific physicians. In an embodimentherein, the rating aggregator 108 may raise flags that are indicative ofconflicts between a physician and a third party. In an embodimentherein, the rating aggregator 108 may be integrated within a healthcareservice provider setup so as to integrate reviews and ratings forphysicians by filtering out superfluous ratings thereby facilitating inpresenting credentialed or authenticated or aggregated rating indicatorsto users or patients or other rated entities.

In accordance with an embodiment herein, the rating aggregator 108 maybe communicatively coupled with external systems (not shown) associatedwith insurance agencies or other third parties so as to retrievefinancial information. The rating aggregator 108 may further becommunicatively coupled to rating sites or individual profiles includingsocial profiles associated with social networking services or socialnetworking systems so as to retrieve doctors' or physicians' profileinformation. The financial information retrieved from the insuranceagencies and the profile information may together be integrated so as togenerate a comparative structure of physicians performing variousprocedures and their respective billings to the insurance agencies. Anoutput generated by the comparative analysis yields yet anotherparameter referred to as financials parameter to be considered duringaggregation by the rating aggregator 108 for associating a comparativeaggregated rating with a physician. Referring to FIGS. 8A and 8B now,with reference to FIGS. 1 through 7, two diagrams 801, 802 are depictedcorresponding to two doctors. As evident, the second doctor (Dr. Mike)performs more procedures and therefore total billings to the insuranceagency (in this case Medicare) would be more in case of the seconddoctor as compared to the first doctor (Dr. Al). Further, the seconddoctor performs even more types of procedures. The second doctor seesmore patients than the first doctor. The output of the comparativeanalysis of the information such as the one shown in the FIGS. 8A and 8Bthat is retrieved by the rating aggregator 108 from the insurance agencyand the profiles of the physicians or doctors may be used as one ofseveral parameters considered by the rating aggregator 108 forevaluating aggregated rating indicators of each of the two doctors.

FIG. 9, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 8B, illustrates an example ofthe sentiment analysis engine 402, rating evaluation unit 308 and thefiltering engine 306 communicatively or operatively coupled with oneanother to perform various rating aggregation tasks. As depicted, thesentiment analysis engine 402 may include a sentiment analysisapplication 902, a database 904, business logic 906, a sentiment lexicon908, machine learning tools 910, a polarity classifier 912, a transcriptwriter 914, a context mapping engine 916, APIs 918, heuristics 920, anda sentiment score processing circuit 922.

The sentiment analysis application 902 may be configured to executesentiment processing tasks with the use of specific software andhardware combinations so that the sentiment analysis application 902 maybe initiated to execute a set of tasks for analyzing sentiment-basedratings including reviews, comments, and the like that are indicative ofratings provided by the rating entity for the rated entity. Thesentiment analysis application 902 may be configured to read expressionsand emoticons and various other types of sentiments. The sentimentanalysis application 902 may be run by an application specificprocessing component or processor configured to perform sentimentanalysis of sentiment-based ratings. The sentiment analysis application902 may utilize a set of other APIs 918 to facilitate execution ofspecific applications. The database 904 may store defined rules forsentiment analysis. For example, the database 904 may store variousemoticons, sentiments or other expression forms that may be used toprovide a rating by the rating entity. The sentiment lexicon 908 mayfurther be integrated or communicatively connected with the database904. The sentiment lexicon 908 may store text-based information ordictionary rules or vocabulary that may be used by the rating entity forproviding a sentiment-based rating involving use of specific words ortext or phrases which may be stored by the sentiment lexicon 908. Thesentiment lexicon 908 and the database 904 may together storeinformation pertinent to expressions or vocabulary etc which may becompared with the words, expressions, etc occurring in the sentimentscore component of the rating indicator to perform sentiment analysis ofthe sentiment score component of the rating indicator.

The sentiment analysis application 902 may utilize information containedin the database 904, sentiment lexicon 908, and the business logic 906,and may apply heuristics 920 and the machine learning tools to performthe analysis of the sentiment score component. The sentiment analysisapplication 902 may further retrieve polarity indices or polarityidentifiers indicative of positive and negative polarities orexpressions generated and classified by the polarity classifier 912. Thepolarity classifier 912 may classify various expressions in either apositive expression or a negative expression to associate a polarity tothe sentiment score component such that the classified expressions maybe used by the sentiment analysis engine 402 to perform sentimentanalysis for polarity related expressions. The sentiment analysisapplication 902 may further associate a context value to the sentimentscore component during sentiment analysis of the sentiment scorecomponent so that each sentiment score component is analyzed in view ofthe context in which sentiments are provided by the rating entity forthe rated entity in the form of the sentiment score component of therating indicator. The transcript writer 914 may generate transcripts foraudio or video reviews or comments so that the sentiment analysisapplication 902 may use the transcripts for performing sentimentanalysis.

The sentiment score processing circuit 922 may run the sentimentanalysis application 902 and determine a score in the form of anumerical value or in any other form such that the score isrepresentative of the sentiment score component. The sentimentprocessing circuit 922 may therefore, in an embodiment, create a scorecomponent that may not be sentiment-based but represents the sentimentscore component through values or rating indicators that may beaggregated with the numerical score component through statistical toolsafter filtering of the erroneous or fraudulent rating indicators.

The sentiment analysis engine 402 may perform analysis on the pluralityrating indicators that may include numerical components as well assentiment score components such that the sentiment score components maybe processed by the sentiment analysis engine 402 in a way that thescores determined based on and representative of the sentiment scorecomponents may be easily aggregated with the numerical score componentsto determine aggregate rating indicators. The plurality of ratingindicators may be retrieved from various sources such as a local storagecomponent 924, a first web-based repository 926, and a second web-basedrepository 928.

The local storage component 924 may be associated with a personalstorage device of the rating entity such as a personal computer or apersonal computing machine such that the sentiment analysis engine 402may access the local storage component 924 remotely to access alocalized numerical score component 930 and a localized sentiment scorecomponent 932. The localized numerical score component 930 signifiesnumerical ratings provided by the rated entity and stored on the localor personal storage device. The localized numerical score component 930may not be publicly published on a web or any other networked platformaccessible by general public for reasons of privacy and to keep thepublished ratings anonymous, in an example. The localized sentimentscore component 932 signifies sentiment-based ratings such as reviews,comments, feedback etc provided by the rated entity and stored on thelocal or personal storage device. The localized sentiment scorecomponent 932 may not be publicly published on a web or any othernetworked platform accessible by general public for reasons of privacyand to keep the published ratings anonymous, in an example. Thelocalized numerical score component 930 and the localized sentimentscore component 932 may be accessed by the sentiment analysis engine 402upon authorization by the rated entity such that the sentiment analysisengine 402 may privately access the local storage component 924 toretrieve the localized numerical score component 930 and the localizedsentiment score component 932. In an example, the context mapping engine916 of the sentiment analysis engine 402 may perform the sentimentanalysis of the localized sentiment score component 932 based on thelocalized numerical score component 930 such that the localizednumerical score component 930 may influence analysis of the localizedsentiment score component 932.

The sentiment analysis engine 402 may access the first web-basedrepository 926 that may be publicly available through a web-basedinterface or any other such interface. The first web-based repository926 may store a numerical score component 934 and a sentiment scorecomponent 936. The numerical score component 934 signifies numericalratings provided by the rated entity and stored on the first web-basedrepository 926 which may be public. The sentiment score component 936signifies sentiment-based ratings such as reviews, comments, feedbacketc provided by the rated entity and stored on the first web-basedrepository 926. The numerical score component 934 and the sentimentscore component 936 may be accessed by the sentiment analysis engine 402for performing sentiment analysis of the sentiment score component 936.In an example, the context mapping engine 916 may perform the sentimentanalysis of the sentiment score component 936 based on the numericalscore component 934 such that the numerical score component 934 mayinfluence analysis of the sentiment score component 936.

The sentiment analysis engine 402 may access the second web-basedrepository 928 which may be publicly accessible by a social connectionover a social network. The second web-based repository 928 may store aprofile component 938 over a social platform hosted by the socialnetwork such that the profile component 938 may be accessible by thesentiment analysis engine 402 through a social engine 940 associatedwith the social networking platform with dynamically changing userconnections. The profile component 938 may include a computer executableprofile of the rated entity generated by the rating entity andaccessible through the social engine 940. The sentiment analysis engine402 may further access a billing component 942. The billing component942 may include financial and billing information generated and verifiedby a third party computing system 944 such that the profile component938 and the billing component 942 include a combination of sentiments,natural texts, numerical scores, and other numerical data. Theaggregation of the plurality of discrete ratings may depend on severalfactors as discussed elsewhere in the document. In an embodiment, theaggregation may depend on a comparison output obtained from comparisonof the profile component 938 and the billing component 942 of the ratedentity. A higher weight may be associated during aggregation if theprofile component 938 matches with the billing component 942substantially which may be indicative that the profile of the ratedentity is reliable based on ratings provided by the rated entity as wellas billing information disclosed to third parties such as taxauthorities and the like.

In an example, the social networking platform or the social engine 940may allow dynamically changing connections wherein the rating entity andthe rated entity may be one such dynamic changing connections. Thesocial networking platform or the social engine 940 herein may refer toa socially networked engine or portal allowing access to a crowd ofpersons or computers as network connections whose identity and profileand social relationships among one another changes dynamically overtime. These dynamically changing connections may access the socialengine 940 through registered social profiles. The social engine 940 mayallow users (who are registered as dynamic connections) to sign up andcommunicate with their friends, peers, colleagues, coworkers or otherindividuals they share some common interest with. These connections aremade through requests and most commonly must be mutually accepted beforecertain functionality is allowed between two or more individuals. Theconnections provide the ability to the users to share content amongstand between them enabled through social networking applications.

In an example, various numerical ratings and numerical score componentsmay be directly submitted to the filtering engine 306 while varioussentiment-based ratings or sentiment score components may be submittedto the sentiment analysis engine 402 which may upon sentiment analysisbe accessed by the filtering engine 306. The filtering engine 306 maycollate the sentiment score components 932 and 936 and the numericalscore components 930 and 934 for performing ratings filtering tasks suchas to remove erroneous or fraudulent ratings prior to aggregation todetermine the aggregate score.

The filtering engine 306 may include a geographical (geo) locationcoordinate analysis engine 946, a gender mapping engine 948, a writingstyle analysis engine 950, a duplicate ratings analysis engine 952, agemapping engine 954, a rating frequency analysis engine 956, a ratingduration analysis engine 958, and a rating sources analysis engine 960.

In an example, the geo-location coordinate analysis engine 946 mayretrieve geo-location coordinate information of the rated entity and therating entity and compare the two locations. Based on the comparison,the geo-location coordinate analysis engine 946 may identifygeographical proximity of the rating entity and the rated entity. Apredefined threshold may be defined such that if the geographicalproximity is more than the threshold, the rating indicator may beconsidered erroneous signifying a possibility of fraud because therating entity is located far from the rated entity and there are fewerchances that the rated entity would have interacted with the ratingentity.

In an example, the gender mapping engine 948 may retrieve genderspecific information of the rated entity and the rating entity. Based onpredefined criteria, the filtering engine 306 may consider a ratingindicator as erroneous depending on an output generated by the gendermapping engine 948. For example, if the rated entity is a doctor forgynecology treatments and if the rating entity is a male person, therating indicator provided by the rating entity may be considerederroneous depending on the predefined criteria.

In an example, the writing style analysis engine 950 may compare writingstyle of the reviews and the comments written by the rating entity withpre stored writing style of the rating entity. Based on the comparison,the rating indicator may be determined as erroneous or not duringfiltering by the filtering engine 306. For example, if the writing stylematches with the pre-stored writing style of the rating entity, therating indicator may be considered as valid and otherwise the ratingindicator may be considered as erroneous.

In an example, the duplicate ratings analysis engine 952 may beconfigured to identify multiple rating indicators originating from thesame rating entity and for the same rated entity. The filtering engine306 may remove all such duplicate rating indicators or may altogetherconsider such rating indicators as erroneous.

In an example, the age mapping engine 954 may determine age of therating entity from profile information of the rating entity such that ifthe age of the rating entity meets predefined criteria such as fallswithin a defined range or beyond a defined range, the rating indicatormay be considered erroneous. The predefined criteria may be dependent onthe age and other characteristics associated with the rated entity.

The rating frequency analysis engine 956 may determine frequency withwhich ratings or rating indicators are provided by the rating entity forthe rated entity. A predefined threshold may be associated such that ifthe determined frequency is more than the predefined threshold, therating indicator may be considered as erroneous. The filtering engine306 may remove such erroneous rating indicators.

The rating duration analysis engine 958 may determine duration betweensubsequent rating indicators by the rating entity for the rated entity.A predefined threshold may be associated such that if the determinedduration is less than the predefined threshold, the rating indicator maybe considered as erroneous. The filtering engine 306 may remove sucherroneous rating indicators.

In an example, the rating sources analysis engine 960 may identifysources from where the rating entity submits the rating indicators suchas a personal social networking page, a specific website and the like.The filtering engine 306 may consider a rating indicator as erroneousbased on certain predefined rules in connection with the rating sources.The filtering engine 306 may consider the rating indicator as erroneousbased on the rating sources as specified by the predefined rules.

An output generated by each of the geo-location coordinate analysisengine 946, gender mapping engine 948, writing style analysis engine950, duplicate ratings analysis engine 952, age mapping engine 954,rating frequency analysis engine 956, rating duration analysis engine958, and the rating sources analysis engine 960 may be used by a filtercircuit 962 which may perform specific processing tasks to filter theerroneous rating indicator based on predefined rules. The filter circuit962 may include or be coupled to a processor with hardware componentsspecifically designed and configured to perform application specifictasks.

In an example, the filtering engine 306 may be coupled with a trust andreliability index calculator 964. The trust and reliability indexcalculator 964 may be configured to determine a trust level and areliability index associated with the rating entity such that the trustlevel and the reliability index may be determined based on reputationand a historical rating profile of the rating entity. The trust andreliability index may be used by the filter circuit 962 as a parameterto authenticate and filter the erroneous rating indicator. The lesserthe trust level and reliability index associated with the rating entity,the higher are the chances of the rating indicator submitted by therating entity to be erroneous and fraud. The historical rating profileof the rating entity may be indicative of rating behavior of the ratingentity for rating a plurality of entities other than the rated entity.In an example, historical rating profiles of several other ratingentities may be generated and the historical rating profile may becompared with the historical rating profiles of the several otherentities to generate a comparison output. The rating indicatorassociated with the rating entity may be considered as the erroneousrating indicator based on the comparison output in an example. Forexample, if the rating behavior as identified based on the historicalrating profile varies from an average rating behavior as identified fromthe several historical rating profiles of several other entities, therating indicator may be considered as erroneous by the filtering engine306 and may be removed before performing aggregation. In an example, abaseline rating behavior may be associated with a defined range based onthe historical rating profiles of the several other entities such thatif the rating behavior of the rating entity is beyond the range, therating indicator may be considered as erroneous. The rating behavior maybe defined in the form of numerical components with the use of variousAPIs, automated algorithms and semantic intelligence tools.

The rating evaluation unit or rating evaluation engine 308 may includeaggregation rules 966, an aggregation engine 968, an aggregate ratingcomparator 970, a relevancy identification engine 972, and apresentation tier 974. The aggregation rules 966 may be defined tocontrol aggregation tasks such that different combination ways may beused to generate the aggregate rating indicator based on the pluralityof individual rating indicators. The aggregation engine 968 may generatethe aggregate rating indicator based on the aggregation rules 966.

In an example, a rating indicator category may be associated with arated entity. For example, a first aggregate rating indicator may beestablished for a first rated entity based on a plurality of individualrating indicators for the first rated entity. A second aggregate ratingindicator may be established for a second rated entity based on aplurality of individual rating indicators for the second rated entity.The first rated entity and the second rated entity may belong to thesame rating category. The aggregate rating comparator 970 may comparethe first aggregate rating and the second aggregate rating. Therelevancy identification engine 972 may identify a relevant identityfrom among the first entity and the second entity based on a userrequest submitted to the rating aggregator 108. The user may specifyrelevancy details such as location of a relevant entity, time ofavailability at a particular time, geographical proximity of therelevant entity from a specific location, based on trust scores andreliability indices associated with the relevant entity, and the likesuch that the relevancy identification engine 972 may identify therelevant identity which matches with the user provided details for therelevant entity. In an example, multiple entities may be identified thatmay match with the user details. The user may in such case select anentity that best matches the user provided details. In case the entityis not available, an alternative entity may be identified from among themultiple entities. For example, the first entity and the second entitymay be physicians and the user may want to select the best physician forappointment based on their aggregated rating indicators. The user mayselect the first entity for example. However, an alternative entity suchas the second entity may be selected based on availability at aparticular time, based on availability at a particular location, basedon geographical proximity from a specific location, and based oncomparison of trust scores and reliability indices associated with thefirst entity and the second entity. In an example, if the first entityis not available, the second entity may be shortlisted.

The presentation tier 974 may be configured to generate an output forpresentation on a display unit. The presentation tier 974 may forexample publish the first aggregate rating and the second aggregaterating on the display unit such as a website and the like.

FIG. 10, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 9, illustrates a methoddiagram for publishing the aggregate rating indicator based on theplurality of discrete rating indicators associated with the ratedentity. In an example, the plurality of discrete rating indicators mayinclude a first rating indicator, a second rating indicator, and a thirdrating indicator. In various examples, there can be even more or lessnumber of rating indicators associated with the rated entity. The methodmay include searching a plurality of repositories such as web hostedrepositories or other storage devices containing the plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators associated with the rated entity. In anexample, each of the plurality of rating indicators may include anumerical score component and a sentiment score component. The numericalscore component may include numerical-based rating indicators and thesentiment score component may include non-numerical based ratingindicators which may include identifiers of expressions, emoticons,emotions, and the like sentiments.

The method may include retrieving the first rating indicator from afirst repository at step 1002. The first rating indicator may include afirst numerical score component and a first semantic score component.The method may include retrieving the second rating indicator from asecond repository at step 1004. The second rating indicator may includea second numeric score component and a second semantic score component.The method may include retrieving the third rating indicator from athird repository at step 1006. The third rating indicator may include athird numeric score component and a third semantic score component. Thefirst rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator may be stored in the memory circuit 312 which may beequipped with a special purpose processor such as the special purposeprocessor 116 configured and designed to perform application specifictasks. In various examples, the first rating indicator, the secondrating indicator, and the third rating indicator may be retrieved fromthe plurality of repositories such that the plurality of repositoriesmay include a web-based repository, a social networking engine or apersonalized social networking platform section, a healthcare ratingindicator agency information source, a local storage unit component orindividual local storage component associated with the rated entity or arating entity, and the like. The individual local storage components mayreside on a local computing machine communicatively connected with thespecial purpose processor 116 through a server component or the server106. The method may include, in an embodiment, searching the individuallocal storage components such as the local storage component 924 for arating indicator provided by an individual to the rated entity. Therating indicator may reside in the local storage components and mayinclude a sentiment score component including sentiments, reviews,comments, and views, and a numerical score component. The specialpurpose processor 116 may index the rating indicator in the memorycircuit 312.

The method may include performing filtering operations to filter out anerroneous or fraudulent rating indicator from among the first ratingindicator, the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicatorat step 1008. The filtering may be processed by the special purposeprocessor 116 coupled with or including the filtering engine 306 suchthat the special purpose processor 116 filters the erroneous orfraudulent rating indicator based on a combination of parameters thathave been discussed elsewhere in the document. The parameters mayinclude for example a geo-location coordinate similarity between therating entity and the rated entity, gender identification, agespecifics, frequency of submitting rating indicators for the ratedentity by the rating entity, sentiment writing style, duration betweensubsequent rating indicators by the same rating entity for the samerated entity, duplicate rating indicators provided by the rating entityfor the rated entity, use of multiple different rating sources forrating the rated entity by the rating entity, and the like.

At step 1010, the method may include aggregating the first ratingindicator, the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicatorby the special purpose processor 116 after filtering out the fraudulentor erroneous rating indicator such that the aggregation results in theaggregate rating indicator indicative of an equivalent of the pluralityof discrete rating indicators other than the fraudulent ratingindicator.

The method may include generating an electric signal comprising datasignifying the aggregate rating indicator and the rated entity at step1012. At step 1014, the electric signal may be transmitted from a firstcomputing device 1102 a (shown in FIG. 11), which may be communicativelyand operatively coupled to the special purpose processor 116, to asecond computing device 1102 b. The first computing device 1102 a andthe second computing device 1102 b may be connected over the network 104with a plurality of communicatively linked data communication devices1102 a, 1102 b, 1102 c, and 1102 d (together referred to as 1102). In anexample, the plurality of computing devices 1102 may be associated andconnected with various publishers 202. At step 1016, the method mayinclude converting the electric signal into a plurality of pixels. Theplurality of pixels may be displayed on a display unit of the secondcommunication device 1102 b at step 1018 to publish the aggregate ratingindicator associated with the rated entity and the data signifying therated entity. FIG. 11, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 10, illustratesan exemplary architecture involving the plurality of computing devices1102 connected over the network 104. The first computing device 1102 amay be associated with the rating aggregator 108. Other computingdevices of the plurality of computing devices 1102 may be associatedwith the publishers 202 from where rating indicators may be retrieved oraggregate rating indicators may be published or displayed.

In an embodiment, the rating indicator category may be associated withthe rated entity. The aggregate score is determined for the plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators such that each of the plurality of discreterating indicators may be linked to the same category. The method mayalso include determining a trust score, and a reliability index for thefirst rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator. The first rating indicator, the second ratingindicator, and the third rating indicator may qualify for theaggregation when the trust score and the reliability index exceeds athreshold trust score and a threshold reliability score for a specificrating indicator category identified by a rating indicator categoryidentifier maintained by the memory circuit 312. The rating indicatorcategory identifier may be used to determine and identify the categoryto which the rated entity belongs to. The rating identifier may forexample be associated to signify a physician category or a healthcarecategory or a finance category, and the like. Different rating indicatorcategories may be defined with different threshold values of the trustscore and the reliability index such that a dynamic trust score and adynamic reliability index may be associated with the rating indicatorcategory identifiable by the rating indicator category identifier.

In an example, the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator,and the third rating indicator may be associated with a first ratedentity such that the aggregate rating indicator identified from thefirst rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator may be a first rating indicator associated with thefirst rated entity. The first aggregate rating indicator may beassociated with a first category such that the first rating indicator,the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicator areassociated for the same first rating indicator category. The method mayfurther include retrieving a fourth rating indicator category, a fifthrating indicator category, and a sixth rating indicator categoryassociated with a second rated entity for the same rating indicatorcategory identified by the rating indicator category identifier. Themethod may include filtering out a fraudulent or erroneous ratingindicator from among the fourth rating indicator, the fifth ratingindicator and the sixth rating indicator by the special purposeprocessor 116 such that the fraudulent rating indicator is determined bythe special purpose processor 116 based on the combination of theparameters as discussed earlier. The fourth rating indicator, the fifthrating indicator, and the sixth rating indicator may be aggregated afterfiltering out the fraudulent or erroneous rating indicator such that theaggregation results in a second aggregate rating indicator associatedwith the second rated entity. The method may include comparing the firstaggregate rating indicator and the second aggregate rating indicator.The method may include identifying a relevant entity from among thefirst entity and the second entity based on a user query such that therelevant entity may be identified based on availability at a particulartime, based on availability at a particular location, based ongeographical proximity from a specific location, and based on comparisonof trust scores and reliability indices associated with the first entityand the second entity. The determination of the relevant entity isalready discussed above.

In an example, the electric signal may include data signifying therelevant entity and a relevant entity profile such that when theelectric signal is transmitted to the second computing device, the datapertinent to the relevant entity and the relevant entity profile may bedisplayed on the second computing device 1102 b. The plurality of pixelsmay be displayed on the display unit of the second communication device1102 b to publish the data signifying the relevant entity and therelevant entity profile.

In an example, the profile component 938 as discussed earlier may begenerated for the rated entity by the rating entity. The profilecomponent 938 may include a computer executable profile of the ratedentity which may be stored at and accessible through the socialnetworking platform associated with the rated entity through the socialnetworking engine or social engine 940. The social networking engine 940may allow dynamically changing user connections including the ratingentity and rated entity as dynamically changing user connections amongother such connections. The profile component 938 may be accessed by theaggregation engine 968 and/or the filtering engine 306 uponauthorization by the rated entity. The aggregation engine 968 mayfurther retrieve the billing component 942 for the rated entity hostedby the third party computing system 944. The billing component 942 mayinclude a billing profile including financial and billing informationgenerated and verified by the third party computing system 944. Thebilling component 942 and the profile component 938 may include acombination of sentiments, natural texts, numerical scores, and othernumerical data. The method may include comparing the billing component942 and the profile component 938 such that a comparison output may beused as a parameter for aggregating the plurality of discrete ratingindicators.

The plurality of individual or discrete rating indicators may be definedin the form of an audio review, a video review, or a visual review. Themethod may include normalizing the rating indicators to a predefinedformat by the special purpose processor 116 so that the aggregate ratingindicator may be determined.

In an example, the historical rating profile of the rating entity may becreated that is indicative of rating behavior of the rated entity forrating of a plurality of other entities. The method may include creatinghistorical rating profiles of a plurality of other rating entities otherthan the rating entity. The method may include comparing the historicalrating profile of the rating entity with the historical rating profilesof the plurality of other rating entities to generate a comparisonoutput. The comparison output may be used by the filtering engine 306 todetermine the erroneous or fraudulent rating indicator. For example, arating indicator such as the first rating indicator may be considered aserroneous if the comparison output reveals substantial differencebetween the historical profile component of the rating entity and anaverage rating profile determined based on the historical ratingprofiles of the plurality of other rating entities.

A few embodiments are further presented herein as numbered examples.

EXAMPLE 1

The embodiments herein disclose system for publishing an aggregaterating indicator based on a plurality of discrete rating indicatorsassociated with a rated entity. The system may include a search enginefor searching a plurality of repositories containing the plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators associated with the entity. Each of theplurality of rating indicators may include a numerical score componentand a sentiment score component. The system may further include aspecial purpose processor for retrieving a first rating indicatorpublished on a repository. The first rating indicator may include afirst numerical score component and a first sentiment score component.The processor may be configured to retrieve a second rating indicatorpublished on a personalized social networking platform section. Thesecond rating indicator may include a second numeric score component anda second sentiment score component. The processor may be configured toretrieve a third rating indicator published with a local storagecomponent associated with the rated entity or a ratting entity. Thethird rating indicator may include a third numeric score component and athird sentiment score component. At least one of the first ratingindicator, the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicatormay be a fraudulent or erroneous rating indicator. The system mayinclude a memory circuit communicatively and operatively connected withthe special purpose processor for storing the first rating indicator,the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicator. The systemmay include a rating filter or filtering engine communicatively coupledwith the special purpose processor and the memory circuit for filteringout a fraudulent rating indicator. The fraudulent rating indicator isdetermined based on a combination of parameters including such as ageo-location coordinate similarity between a rating entity and the ratedentity, gender identification, age specifics, frequency of the ratingindicator of the rated entity by the rating entity, sentiment writingstyle, duration between the rating indicator and a subsequent ratingindicator by the same rating entity for the same rated entity, duplicaterating indicators provided by the rating entity for the rated entity,use of multiple rating sources for rating the rated entity by the ratingentity, and the like. The system may include a rating aggregatorcommunicatively and operatively connected with the special purposeprocessor for aggregating the first rating indicator, the second ratingindicator, and the third rating indicator after filtering out thefraudulent rating indicator such that the aggregation results in anaggregate rating indicator indicative of an equivalent of the pluralityof discrete rating indicators other than the fraudulent ratingindicator. The system may include an electric signal generator embeddedin an electronic circuit and communicatively and operatively connectedwith the special purpose processor and the memory circuit for generatingan electric signal comprising data signifying the aggregate ratingindicator and the rated entity. The system may include a transceiver fortransmitting the electric signal from a data communication device,communicatively connected with the special purpose processor and theelectric signal generator, in a network comprising a plurality ofcommunicatively linked data communication devices. The system mayinclude a signal converter for converting the electric signal into aplurality of pixels to publish the aggregate rating indicator associatedwith the rated entity and the data signifying the rated entity.

EXAMPLE 2

The system of example 1, wherein the repositories are associated with arating indicator website, a social networking engine, and a healthcarerating indicator agency information source, and the like.

EXAMPLE 3

The system of example 1 further includes a server componentcommunicatively and operatively coupled with the special purposeprocessor to access the repositories. The server component is furthercommunicatively coupled with individual local storage componentsresiding on a local computing machine remotely located from the servercomponent and the processor component. The server component may beconfigured to access the individual local storage components. The servercomponent and the processor component together are configured to searchdigital information stored on the individual local storage componentsfor a rating indicator provided by an individual to the rated entity.The rating indicator resides in the local storage components and mayinclude sentiments, reviews, comments, and views. The server componentand the processor may be configured to index the rating indicator,identified by the sentiments, reviews, comments, and the views, in thememory circuit by the special purpose processor. The special purposeprocessor is further configured to associate a rating indicator categorywith the rated entity. The aggregate score may be determined for theplurality of discrete rating indicators such that each of the pluralityof discrete rating indicators may be linked to the same category. Thespecial purpose processor may further be configured to determine a trustscore, and a reliability index for the first rating indicator, thesecond rating indicator, and the third rating indicator. The firstrating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the third ratingindicator may qualify for the aggregation when the trust score and thereliability index exceeds a threshold trust score and a thresholdreliability score for a specific rating indicator category identified bya rating indicator category identifier maintained by the memory circuit.

The methods of aggregation of the rating indicators as disclosed hereintreat each review and rating as an informative as well as a noisy signalof quality. The methods and systems allow optimization of ratingaggregation by processing filtering of the rating indicators based onspecific parameters has discussed in the document. In order to aggregatethe individual rating indicators to get an optimal aggregation ratingindicator, the rating indicators are weighted for biases and noise priorto aggregation by the rating aggregator 108 and the filtering engine 306(or the filter circuit 962). The embodiments herein allow constructingoptimal rating indicators for each entity or for each category such as ahealthcare delivery organization (HDO) in an example. The optimal ratingindicator processed by the filter circuit 962 and aggregated by theaggregation engine 968 reduces the biases or variations due todifferences in reviewers or due to differences in accuracy levels ofdifferent rating indicators and/or reliability levels among differentreviewers.

The processes of filtering and aggregation to determine an aggregaterating indicator pose several challenges. Finding an aggregate ratingindicator depends on personalization data and each user or rating entitymay possess his biases or preferences which may affect the aggregaterating indicator. Moreover, each rating entity may agree or disagreewith their recommendations even on the same matter associated with thesame rated entity. The embodiments herein allow a more robust andreliable rating indicators aggregation by filtering the ratingindicators using a multi-filtering approach including the use ofparameters-based filtering using the filtering engine enabled through aset of hardware appliances and API as discussed above in conjunctionwith various figures. The multi-filtering approach is further enabledthrough a second filtering layer with the use of human APIs (applicationprogramming interfaces) 1202 as shown in FIG. 12.

FIG. 12, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 11, illustrates an example offiltering of the rating indicators that are obtained from various typesof sources through the use of the multi-layer filtering approach. Thehuman APIs 1202 initiates manual intervention at specific times toenhance reliability of the rating indicators before aggregation. Thehuman APIs 1202 are added automatically to alert manual interventiononce the trust and reliability indices associated with the ratingindicators go below a threshold level. The human APIs 1202 can thereforeinitiate triggers such as for example to perform background check and/orperform credentialing. The human APIs 1202 may initiate an automatedphone call or send an email or perform any other service orientedfunction. The human APIs 1202 may allow background assessment with theuse of a background assessment engine 1204 and credentialing with theuse of a credentialing appliance 1206. The multi-tier filtering approachof the rating indicators prevents the biases and personalizationpreferences from impacting the aggregate rating indicator. Themulti-tier filtering can for example determine a person rating anotherwrong person with a similar name. The human APIs 1202 initiate thetriggers to review and watch applications and verify by phoning oremailing or double checking through physical means based on thegenerated triggers through the human APIs 1202.

Furthermore, the use of the sentiment score component as well as thenumerical score component makes the task of aggregation even morecomplex. The rating indicators may be different, of different types,heterogeneous, and originating from different sources such as the localstorage component 924, first web-based repository 926, and the secondweb-based repository 928 associated with the social engine 940 and thelike. The aggregating of such rating indicators from such varied sourcesposes several technologies challenges such as identification of entitiesthat does the ratings. For example, if John Smith submits a rating onthe first web-based repository 926 and if John Smith submits anotherrating on the local storage component 924, the identity of two JohnSmith being the same persons may be required to be determined. Theidentity of the rating entity may need to be established for a reliablerating aggregation score or indicator. Similarly, the same person mayhave rated an entity on the local storage component 924 as well asthrough a remote web-based repository such as the first web-basedrepository 926. In such cases, the identity of the rating entity andreliability of the rating needs to be assessed since the two ratings maybe duplicates and may require filtration. The filtering engine 306disclosed in the present document may perform filtering using thevarious appliances and modules as discussed in conjunction with variousfigures. Further, the rating indicators obtained from several sourcesmay include rating indicators on different scales. The aggregationengine 968 or the special purpose processor 116 may therefore performhomogenization of the discrete rating indicators prior to aggregation soas to organize the rating indicators in same formats.

Still, the retrieval of different types of rating indicators fromdifferent types of repositories accessible through different ways poseseven more challenges. For example, a rating indicator may be accessedfrom a personal social networking platform section. Another ratingindicator may be acquired from a personal database which may not beconnected to a public network and can be networked privately only afterauthorization by the rating entity. In such cases, the rating entity maystore the recommendations, reviews and ratings reserved with a personaldata store. Even further, another rating indicator may be retrieved froma public web-based repository accessible through a public network. Theembodiments herein address these challenges by deploying ahardware-based appliance 1208 in a secured cloud environment 1210 of thefiltering engine 306. The hardware-based appliance 1208 may get datasuch as the rating indicators from a non-secured environment 1212including the various sources of the rating indicators located behind afirewall and push the data to the filtering engine 306 in the securedcloud environment 1210. The hardware-based appliance 1208 is designed toaccess an agent appliance 1214 dropped in behind the firewall in thenon-secured environment 1212 that does all local collection of therating indicators. The rating indicators are then pushed out in aharmonized way to the secured cloud environment 1210 by the agent device1214 so that the hardware-based appliance 1208 collects the pushed data,transforms it for harmonizing it, and submits it to the filtering engine306 prior to aggregation. In an example, harmonization can be donewithin the secured cloud environment 1210.

The hardware-based appliance 1208 may be connected with the filteringengine 306 to trigger the human APIs 1202 and several customapplications deployed through an application layer 1216 with automatedapplications. The automated applications may be executed through such asthe geo-location coordinate analysis engine 946, gender mapping engine948, writing style analysis engine 950, duplicate ratings analysisengine 952, age mapping engine 954, rating frequency analysis engine956, rating duration analysis engine 958, rating sources analysis engine960, and the like. The geo-location coordinate analysis engine 946 maygenerate a first input component indicative of proximity of the ratedentity with the rating entity. The gender mapping engine 948 maygenerate a second input component indicative of a gender specific valuesignifying validity of the rating indicator based on gender specificcomparison obtained by comparing with pre-defined gender specificdefinitions. The writing style analysis engine 950 may generate a thirdinput component indicative of validity of the rating indicator obtainedby comparison of the writing style with a pre-stored writing style ofthe rating entity. The duplicate rating analysis engine 952 may generatea fourth input component indicative of validity of the rating indicatorbased on analysis of duplicate ratings from seemingly same persons orrating entities. The age mapping engine 954 may generate a fifth inputcomponent indicative of age specific value signifying validity of therating indicator based on age specific comparison obtained by comparingwith pre-defined age specific definitions. The rating frequency analysisengine 956 generates a sixth input component indicative of validity ofthe rating indicator based on comparison of the rating frequency with apre-stored rating frequency threshold. The rating duration analysisengine 958 may generate a seventh input component indicative of validityof the rating indicator based on comparison of the rating duration witha pre-stored rating duration threshold. The rating sources analysisengine 960 may generate an eighth input component indicative of validityof the rating indicator based on comparison of the variance in therating sources such as the first web-based repository 926, the secondweb-based repository 928, the local storage component or local storageunit or device 924 and the like. In an example, the first inputcomponent, the second input component, the third input component, thefourth input component, the fifth input component, the sixth inputcomponent, the seventh input component, and the eighth input componentmay be generated through the application layer 1216 deployed within thesecured cloud environment 1210 and these various input components may besubmitted by the hardware-based appliance 1208 to the filtering engine306 such that values of the various input components decide initiationand triggering of the human APIs 1202 for reliability assurance of therating indicators during filtering process and prior to the aggregation.The various input components may be computer executable.

In an embodiment, the appliance 1208 may be an extensible agentappliance. The appliance 1208 may be configured to host a plug and playcloud agent. The plug and play agent may consist of a central host suchthat various functionalities may be added to it as separate plug-ins.New plug-ins may be automatically added into the plug and play agent.The plug and play agent can be installed by the server 106 or thespecial purpose processor 116. The appliance 1208 is capable oflaunching a gateway application configured to pair a connected computingmachine hosting a repository such as the local storage component 924 orthe first web-based repository 926 or the second web-based repository928 with the server 106 or the agent device 1214 to allow access ofcomputer executable rating indicators residing on the repositories bythe agent device 1214. The gateway application allows and automatestransfer of the computer executable rating indicators from the computingmachine to the server 106 or the appliance through the agent device1214.

Determining geographical location coordinates and comparisons betweengeo coordinates of the rating entity and the rated entity to determinetrustworthiness of a rating indicator may involve complex challengessuch as who rated the rating entity and whether the rated entity was inproximity of the rating entity so as to ensure reliability of the ratingindicator. The application layer 1216 may deploy the geo-locationcoordinate analysis engine 946 to determine proximity of the ratedentity with the rating entity and to determine whether the rated entityand the rated entity are in a valid geographical area or boundary byestablishing a geographical proximity boundary. And, when the rating isdone, the geo-location coordinate analysis engine 946 preventscompletely or adjusts the rating indicator based on whether the ratingentity may be the person wanted to rate for example John Smith in NYCbut accidentally rated John Smith in Chicago or whether the ratingentity and the rated entity are beyond the valid and establishedgeographical proximity boundary. The geo-location coordinate analysisengine 946 may enable IP based geography capabilities, WiFi triangulatedor coordinated capabilities with WiFi adaptors, physical GPS to delivergeographical coordinate information, and the like.

In an example, the application layer 1216 may deploy an appliance toexecute time-based comparisons such as to assess for temporalparameters. For example, an office for which a rating is submitted at aparticular time was closed and hence the rating indicator so generatedmay be erroneous.

The embodiments herein may be embodied as a computer program productconfigured to include a pre-configured set of instructions, which whenperformed, can result in actions as stated in conjunction with themethods described above. In an example, the pre-configured set ofinstructions can be stored on a tangible non-transitory computerreadable medium or a program storage device. In an example, the tangiblenon-transitory computer readable medium can be configured to include theset of instructions, which when performed by a device, can cause thedevice to perform acts similar to the ones described here. Embodimentsherein may also include tangible and/or non-transitory computer-readablestorage media for carrying or having computer executable instructions ordata structures stored thereon. Such non-transitory computer readablestorage media can be any available media that can be accessed by ageneral purpose or special purpose computer, including the functionaldesign of any special purpose processor as discussed above. By way ofexample, and not limitation, such non-transitory computer-readable mediacan include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means inthe form of computer executable instructions, data structures, orprocessor chip design. When information is transferred or provided overa network or another communications connection (either hardwired,wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computer properlyviews the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any suchconnection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinationsof the above should also be included within the scope of thecomputer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,components, data structures, objects, and the functions inherent in thedesign of special-purpose processors, etc. that perform particular tasksor implement particular abstract data types. Computer executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps.

The techniques provided by the embodiments herein may be implemented onan integrated circuit chip (not shown). The chip design is created in agraphical computer programming language, and stored in a computerstorage medium (such as a disk, tape, physical hard drive, or virtualhard drive such as in a storage access network). If the designer doesnot fabricate chips or the photolithographic masks used to fabricatechips, the designer transmits the resulting design by physical means(e.g., by providing a copy of the storage medium storing the design) orelectronically (e.g., through the Internet) to such entities, directlyor indirectly. The stored design is then converted into the appropriateformat (e.g., GDSII) for the fabrication of photolithographic masks,which typically include multiple copies of the chip design in questionthat are to be formed on a wafer. The photolithographic masks areutilized to define areas of the wafer (and/or the layers thereon) to beetched or otherwise processed.

The resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed by thefabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as a single wafer that hasmultiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die, or in a packaged form. In thelatter case the chip is mounted in a single chip package (such as aplastic carrier, with leads that are affixed to a motherboard or otherhigher level carrier) or in a multichip package (such as a ceramiccarrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buriedinterconnections). In any case the chip is then integrated with otherchips, discrete circuit elements, and/or other signal processing devicesas part of either (a) an intermediate product, such as a motherboard, or(b) an end product. The end product can be any product that includesintegrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-endapplications to advanced computer products having a display, a keyboardor other input device, and a central processor, and may be configured,for example, as a kiosk.

The embodiments herein can include both hardware and software elements.The embodiments that are implemented in software include but are notlimited to, firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. Furthermore,the embodiments herein can take the form of a computer program productaccessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providingprogram code for use by or in connection with a computer or anyinstruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, acomputer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus thatcan comprise, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the programfor use by or in connection with the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of opticaldisks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compactdisk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution.

Input/output (I/O) devices (including but not limited to keyboards,displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system eitherdirectly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters mayalso be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system tobecome coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers orstorage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems,cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently availabletypes of network adapters.

A representative hardware environment for practicing the embodimentsherein is depicted in FIG. 13, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 12.This schematic drawing illustrates a hardware configuration of aninformation handling/computer system 1300 in accordance with theembodiments herein. The system 1300 comprises at least one processor orcentral processing unit (CPU) 10. The CPUs 10 are interconnected viasystem bus 12 to various devices such as a random access memory (RAM)14, read-only memory (ROM) 16, and an input/output (I/O) adapter 18. TheI/O adapter 18 can connect to peripheral devices, such as disk units 11and tape drives 13, or other program storage devices that are readableby the system. The system 1300 can read the inventive instructions onthe program storage devices and follow these instructions to execute themethodology of the embodiments herein. The system 1300 further includesa user interface adapter 19 that connects a keyboard 15, mouse 17,speaker 24, microphone 22, and/or other user interface devices such as atouch screen device (not shown) to the bus 12 to gather user input.Additionally, a communication adapter 20 connects the bus 12 to a dataprocessing network 25, and a display adapter 21 connects the bus 12 to adisplay device 23 which may be embodied as an output device such as amonitor, printer, or transmitter, for example. Further, a transceiver26, a signal comparator 27, and a signal converter 28 may be connectedwith the bus 12 for processing, transmission, receipt, comparison, andconversion of electric or electronic signals.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fullyreveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, byapplying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for variousapplications such specific embodiments without departing from thegeneric concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modificationsshould and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and rangeof equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood thatthe phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose ofdescription and not of limitation.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for publishing anaggregate rating indicator based on a plurality of discrete ratingindicators associated with a rated entity, the method comprising:searching a plurality of repositories containing the plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators associated with the rated entity, whereineach of the plurality of rating indicators comprises a numerical scorecomponent and a sentiment score component; retrieving a first ratingindicator published on a web-based repository, the first ratingindicator including a first numerical score component and a firstsemantic score component; retrieving a second rating indicator publishedon a personalized social networking platform section, the second ratingindicator including a second numeric score component and a secondsemantic score component; retrieving a third rating indicator storedwith a local storage component associated with the rated entity or arating entity, the third rating indicator including a third numericscore component and a third semantic score component, wherein at leastone of the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and thethird rating indicator is a fraudulent rating indicator; storing thefirst rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator in a memory circuit equipped with a special purposeprocessor; filtering out the fraudulent rating indicator from among thefirst rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator, by the special purpose processor, wherein thefraudulent rating indicator is determined by the special purposeprocessor based on a combination of computer executable input componentsincluding: a first input component indicative of a geo-locationcoordinate similarity between a rating entity and the rated entity; asecond input component indicative of a gender identification; a thirdinput component indicative of age specifics; a fourth input componentindicative of frequency of the rating indicator of the rated entity bythe rating entity; a fifth input component indicative of sentimentwriting style; a sixth input component indicative of duration betweenthe rating indicator and a subsequent rating indicator by the samerating entity for the same rated entity; a seventh input componentindicative of duplicate rating indicators provided by the rating entityfor the rated entity; and an eighth input component indicative of use ofmultiple different rating sources for rating the rated entity by therating entity; aggregating the first rating indicator, the second ratingindicator, and the third rating indicator by the special purposecomputer after filtering out the fraudulent rating indicator such thatthe aggregation results in an aggregate rating indicator indicative ofan equivalent of the plurality of discrete rating indicators other thanthe fraudulent rating indicator; generating an electric signalcomprising data signifying the aggregate rating indicator and the ratedentity; transmitting the electric signal from a data communicationdevice, communicatively connected with the special purpose processor, ina network comprising a plurality of communicatively linked datacommunication devices; converting the electric signal into a pluralityof pixels; and displaying the plurality of pixels on a display unit of asecond communication device to publish the aggregate rating indicatorassociated with the rated entity and the data signifying the ratedentity.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the repositories areassociated with a rating indicator website, a social networking engine,and a healthcare rating indicator agency information source.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the local storage component resides on alocal computing machine communicatively connected with the specialpurpose processor through a server component, the method furthercomprising: searching the local storage component for a rating indicatorsubmitted by an individual for the rated entity, wherein the ratingindicator residing in the local storage component comprises sentiments,reviews, comments, and views; and indexing the rating indicator,identified by the sentiments, reviews, comments, and the views, in thememory circuit by the special purpose processor.
 4. The method of claim1, further comprising associating a rating indicator category with therated entity, wherein the aggregate score is determined for theplurality of discrete rating indicators such that each of the pluralityof discrete rating indicators are linked to the same category.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising determining a trust score, and areliability index for the first rating indicator, the second ratingindicator, and the third rating indicator, wherein the first ratingindicator, the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicatorqualifies for the aggregation when the trust score and the reliabilityindex exceeds a threshold trust score and a threshold reliability scorefor a specific rating indicator category identified by a ratingindicator category identifier maintained by the memory circuit.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the rated entity is a first entity and theaggregate rating indicator is a first aggregate rating indicator, themethod further comprising: retrieving a fourth rating indicator, a fifthrating indicator, and a sixth rating indicator associated with a secondentity for the same rating indicator category identified by the ratingindicator category identifier; filtering out a fraudulent ratingindicator from among the fourth rating indicator, the fifth ratingindicator and the sixth rating indicator by the special purposeprocessor, wherein the fraudulent rating indicator is determined by thespecial purpose processor based on the combination of the parameters;aggregating the fourth rating indicator, the fifth rating indicator, andthe sixth rating indicator after filtering out the fraudulent ratingindicator such that the aggregation results in a second aggregate ratingindicator; comparing the first aggregate rating indicator and the secondaggregate rating indicator; and identifying a relevant entity from amongthe first entity and the second entity, wherein the relevant entity isidentified based on availability at a particular time, based onavailability at a particular location, based on geographical proximityfrom a specific location, and based on comparison of trust scores andreliability indices associated with the first entity and the secondentity.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: generating anelectric signal comprising data signifying the relevant entity and arelevant entity profile; transmitting the electric signal from the datacommunication device; converting the electric signal into a plurality ofpixels; and displaying the plurality of pixels on the display unit ofthe second communication device to publish the data signifying therelevant entity and the relevant entity profile.
 8. The method of claim6, wherein the parameters for aggregating the plurality of discreteratings further comprises a comparison output obtained from a profilecomponent and a billing component of the rated entity, wherein theprofile component comprises a computer executable profile of the ratedentity generated by the rating entity and accessible through a socialengine associated with a social networking platform with dynamicallychanging user connections, and the billing component comprises a billingprofile including financial and billing information generated andverified by a third party computing system such that the profilecomponent and the billing component include a combination of sentiments,natural texts, numerical scores, and other numerical data.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first rating indicator is defined in the form ofan audio review, the second rating indicator is defined in the form of avideo review, and the third rating indicator is defined in the form of avisual review, the method further comprising normalizing andstandardizing the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator,and the third rating indicator to a predefined format by the specialpurpose processor.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the filteringcomprises: creating a historical rating profile of the rating entitythat is indicative of rating behavior of the rated entity for rating ofa plurality of other entities; creating historical rating profiles of aplurality of other rating entities other than the rating entity;comparing the historical rating profile of the rating entity with thehistorical rating profiles of the plurality of other rating entities togenerate a comparison output; and considering a rating indicator fromamong the first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and thethird rating indicator as the fraudulent rating indicator based on thecomparison output.
 11. A system for publishing an aggregate ratingindicator based on a plurality of discrete rating indicators associatedwith a rated entity, the system comprising: a search engine forsearching a plurality of repositories containing the plurality ofdiscrete rating indicators associated with the entity, wherein each ofthe plurality of rating indicators comprises a numerical score componentand a sentiment score component; a special purpose processor for:retrieving a first rating indicator published on a web-based repository,the first rating indicator including a first numerical score componentand a first sentiment score component; retrieving a second ratingindicator published on a personalized social networking platformsection, the second rating indicator including a second numeric scorecomponent and a second sentiment score component; and retrieving a thirdrating indicator published with a local storage component associatedwith the rated entity or a ratting entity, the third rating indicatorincluding a third numeric score component and a third sentiment scorecomponent, wherein at least one of the first rating indicator, thesecond rating indicator, and the third rating indicator is a fraudulentrating indicator; a memory circuit communicatively and operativelyconnected with the special purpose processor for storing the firstrating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the third ratingindicator; a rating filter communicatively coupled with the specialpurpose processor and the memory circuit for filtering out a fraudulentrating indicator, wherein the fraudulent rating indicator is determinedbased on a combination of computer executable input componentsincluding: a first input component generated by a geo-locationcoordinate analysis engine indicative of a geo-location coordinatesimilarity between a rating entity and the rated entity; a second inputcomponent generated by a gender mapping engine indicative of genderidentification; a third input component generated by an age mappingengine indicative of age specifics; a fourth input component generatedby a rating frequency analysis engine indicative of frequency of therating indicator of the rated entity by the rating entity; a fifth inputcomponent generated by a writing style analysis engine indicative of asentiment writing style; a sixth input component generated by a ratingduration analysis engine indicative of duration between the ratingindicator and a subsequent rating indicator by the same rating entityfor the same rated entity; a seventh input component generated by aduplicate ratings analysis engine and indicative of duplicate ratingindicators provided by the rating entity for the rated entity; and aneighth input component generated by a rating sources analysis engine andindicative of use of multiple rating sources for rating the rated entityby the rating entity; a rating aggregator communicatively andoperatively connected with the special purpose processor for aggregatingthe first rating indicator, the second rating indicator, and the thirdrating indicator after filtering out the fraudulent rating indicatorsuch that the aggregation results in an aggregate rating indicatorindicative of an equivalent of the plurality of discrete ratingindicators other than the fraudulent rating indicator; an electricsignal generator embedded in an electronic circuit and communicativelyand operatively connected with the special purpose processor and thememory circuit for generating an electric signal comprising datasignifying the aggregate rating indicator and the rated entity; atransceiver for transmitting the electric signal from a datacommunication device, communicatively connected with the special purposeprocessor and the electric signal generator, in a network comprising aplurality of communicatively linked data communication devices; and asignal converter for converting the electric signal into a plurality ofpixels to publish the aggregate rating indicator associated with therated entity and the data signifying the rated entity.
 12. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the web-hosted repositories are associated with arating indicator website, a social networking engine, and a healthcarerating indicator agency information source.
 13. The system of claim 10,further comprising a server component communicatively and operativelycoupled with the special purpose processor to access the repositories,wherein the server component is further communicatively coupled withindividual local storage components residing on a local computingmachine remotely located from the server component and the processorcomponent, the server component configured to access the individuallocal storage components, the server component and the processorcomponent together configured to: search digital information stored onthe individual local storage components for a rating indicator providedby an individual to the rated entity, wherein the rating indicatorresiding in the local storage components comprises sentiments, reviews,comments, and views; and index the rating indicator, identified by thesentiments, reviews, comments, and the views, in the memory circuit bythe special purpose processor.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein thespecial purpose processor is further configured to associate a ratingindicator category with the rated entity, wherein the aggregate score isdetermined for the plurality of discrete rating indicators such thateach of the plurality of discrete rating indicators are linked to thesame category.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the special purposeprocessor is further configured to determine a trust score, and areliability index for the first rating indicator, the second ratingindicator, and the third rating indicator, wherein the first ratingindicator, the second rating indicator, and the third rating indicatorqualifies for the aggregation when the trust score and the reliabilityindex exceeds a threshold trust score and a threshold reliability scorefor a specific rating indicator category identified by a ratingindicator category identifier maintained by the memory circuit.
 16. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the rated entity is a first entity and theaggregate rating indicator is a first aggregate rating indicator, andwherein the special purpose processor is further configured to: retrievea fourth rating indicator, a fifth rating indicator, and a sixth ratingindicator associated with a second entity for the same rating indicatorcategory identified by the rating indicator category identifier; filterout a fraudulent rating indicator from among the fourth ratingindicator, the fifth rating indicator and the sixth rating indicator bythe special purpose processor, wherein the fraudulent rating indicatoris determined by the special purpose processor based on the combinationof the parameters; aggregate the fourth rating indicator, the fifthrating indicator, and the sixth rating indicator after filtering out thefraudulent rating indicator such that the aggregation results in asecond aggregate rating indicator; compare the first aggregate ratingindicator and the second aggregate rating indicator; and identify arelevant entity from among the first entity and the second entity,wherein the relevant entity is identified based on availability at aparticular time, based on availability at a particular location, basedon geographical proximity from a specific location, and based oncomparison of trust scores and reliability indices associated with thefirst entity and the second entity.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein:the signal generator is further configured to generate an electricsignal comprising data signifying the relevant entity and a relevantentity profile; the transceiver is further configured to transmit theelectric signal from the data communication device; and the signalconverter is further configured to convert the electric signal into aplurality of pixels to publish the data signifying the relevant entityand the relevant entity profile.